The Ministry of Infrastructure and electricity bodies, Energy Development Corporation Limited (EDCL) and Rwanda Energy Group), are working on a strategy that will help reduce loading shedding among productive sectors of the economy, James Musoni, the Minister for Infrastructure, has said.
The move follows complaints by industrialists over inadequate power supply and unscheduled load shedding, which they say are costing them dearly in terms of production process breakdowns.
The manufacturers want the energy utilities to give the nine of hours of uninterrupted electricity supply daily, from the present six hours.
Rwanda’s installed power generation capacity is 161.2MW, but only 119.38MW is available, according to the power utilities. This means a 41.8MW deficit. Government expects to connected 70MW onto the national grid by the end of the year. It also plans to increase the country’s total generation capacity to 563MW by 2017.
Musoni, who was speaking during the field tour of the electricity control centre in Gikondo, Kikicuro District on Thursday, also said government would engage industrialists and other stakeholders to work together on finding a lasting solution for the power challenge.
The minister, however, urged power utilities to supply industrialists and other productive sectors uninterrupted electricity from 6am in the morning to 3pm in the afternoon.
Musoni argued that the move would help keep the economy afloat despite power deficit the country is experiencing presently.
According to the minister, EDCL, a subsidiary company of Rwanda Energy Group Limited (REG), should prioritise the productive sectors of the economy until the situation stabilises, a move he said would the key sectors of the economy operating smoothly.
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The country is currently facing a power deficit due to the prolonged dry spell the country is experiencing. This has resulted into a reduction in water levels at Nyabarongo 1 power plant thus leading to a reduction in power generation.
“We need to always plan ahead to keep the economy supplied with electricity despite the dry season. We must draw experience from this so that next year we avoid recurrence of the same problem,” Musoni challenged the two energy agencies.
Meanwhile, the move to increase electricity supply to manufactures is a timely shot that could help ease the cost of production.
“It is a great initiative if is implemented. Our biggest challenge as producers has been the inconsistent power supply, which often damages equipment leading to big losses and costs for repairs of need for new spare parts,” said Anne Rwigara, the secretary general of the Rwanda Association of Manufacturers (RAM), in a telephone interview.
Industrialists have for long been complaining of intermittent power supply and unscheduled load shedding, which they say damages machinery.
They had earlier this threatened to take the electricity body to courts of law if the matter was not addressed immediately.
More power coming
And according to Odette Mbabazi, the EDCL managing director, the more power will soon come on line and help reduce load shedding, especially during dry spells of the year.
Today, the country’s hydro electricity generation capacity accounts for 97.37MW, thermal power is at 51.7MW, methane 3.6MW and 8.75MW of the power is produced from energy solar. Overall, the national power generation capacity is expected to increase by 61.5MW by 2015, when projects, like Kivuwatt (25MW), Gishoma Peat Plant (15MW) and Giggawatt solar power plant (8.5MW), are connected on onto the national grid.
Other efforts to increase power supply include importing 30MW from Kenya – expected by the end of the year – and another 400MW from Ethiopia by 2018.
Government has allocated Rwf135 billion this year to the energy sector to incrase electricity supply to spur industrial growth, especially targeted for the free trade zone and the country’s electricity roll out plan.
